Former boss given the gift of life – a kidney

Published: Wednesday, November 21st, 2018 at 11:30pm

Updated: Wednesday, November 21st, 2018 at 11:10pm

Yvette Pacheco and Bob Davis are colleagues at the U.S. Forest Service, but in June they also became organ donor and recipient after Pacheco gave Davis one of her kidneys. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)

Yvette Pacheco and Bob Davis walk the halls at the U.S. Forest Service building on Broadway SE where they both work. Davis is retiring in January. (Roberto E. Rosales/Albuquerque Journal)

Years of living as a Type II diabetic and having high blood pressure had taken its toll on Davis’ kidneys.

“I was going into complete renal failure,” said Davis, director of Planning, Watershed and Air Management.

Davis was placed on peritoneal dialysis, a near-constant process that filters out the body’s impurities by flushing it with fluid through the abdominal lining. It’s a temporary, imperfect fix to a life-threatening malady that only gets worse with time.

About 3½ years ago, he was placed on the kidney transplant wait list. The average stay on the list is three to five years.

“And I was at year three,” he said.

Each of his five siblings had been tested as potential donors, and each had been rejected.

Then on May 9 – coincidentally his 66th birthday – Davis got the call that a living donor had been found who was a match.

The donor, he was told, was someone he worked with.

He couldn’t guess which co-worker would so generously give him a major organ without saying a word.

He didn’t guess it was Pacheco.

Organ transplants were something she knew a little about. Her husband, Mark, needed a liver transplant in 2017 after a bout of cancer had ravaged his. Pacheco had been disappointed that she was not a match and unable to give him part of hers.

For that, she was both grateful and inspired. A woman of faith, she knew that when one door closes another opens. All she needed to do was find that other door.

Davis was that door.

“I knew what it was like seeing my husband go through cancer and being sick and whether every tomorrow was going to be the beginning of a new journey or the end,” Pacheco, 52, said. “I knew someone had helped him with a transplant in his time of need. I knew I could help somebody, too. It just happened to be Bob.”

Pacheco said she began the long process to determine whether she was a match, then whether she was healthy enough to be a donor. That requires batteries of tests and inches of paperwork – and a lot of soul searching.

The only person she told was her husband.

Davis didn’t learn her identity until days before the transplant June 12.

“I didn’t want it to be all about me,” she said about the secrecy. “Like look at me, look at this nice thing I’m doing. I wanted this to be about doing the right thing.”

The right thing in this case is not an easy thing. Transplanting is major surgery, and it took six weeks for Pacheco to recover enough to go back to work – her six-week paid leave a little-known perk for federal employees who are organ donors.

Pacheco still tears up when she talks about the gift of life she gave to a colleague.

“It’s not for everybody, but seeing a person in need is for everybody. Being kind is for everybody,” she said. “This world is already ugly enough.”

As for Davis, he’s the healthiest he’s been in years. And very grateful.

“It was just amazing. She gave me a great kindness,” he said. “I’ll have a piece of her with me for the rest of my life.”

Davis and Pacheco are back to being just colleagues, at least for now – Davis retires in January.

But when they say hello to each other now, they know what a miracle that is.

As we enter the season of thanksgiving and joy, it’s good to be reminded of such miracles.

Learn moreCalling all angels
For information or to register as an organ or tissue donor in New Mexico, visit the New Mexico Donor Registry, visit any MVD office or call 505-843-7672.
It’s time once again for you readers to submit nominations to our 10th annual Angels Among Us, which honors those unsung someones who brighten the community with their selfless acts of kindness. Deadline is Dec. 16.